ASHEVILLE, N.C. - Evangelist Billy Graham is in fair condition at a North Carolina hospital after a successful surgery.

Doctors say the 89-year-old Graham was talking immediately after the surgery Wednesday at Mission Hospitals near his home in Montreat.

Graham has a buildup of fluid within the brain. The surgery replaced a valve in a shunt installed in 2000 that drains excess fluid from his brain through a small tube.